Short cuts: The skinny on 3 new releases. Photos / Supplied
Short cuts: The skinny on 3 new releases. Photos / Supplied
Kelly Link has published five collections of short stories that might be mostly placed within the genre of speculative fiction. She’s won scads of awards for her writing, including a MacArthur “Genius” grant. Now she has written her first novel, the 600+-page The Book of Love (Bloomsbury). It’s about threeNew England teenagers who disappeared a year ago and were presumed dead. They were. But they’re back alive, thanks to the man they thought was their high school music teacher. Kirkus Reviews was mostly on board. “This book has many enchantments and moving moments, but it would have been better, and more magical, if it were shorter.”
The Book of Love by Kelly Link. Photo / Supplied
Is your child or grandchild fascinated by outer space? Patricia Geis’s The Sun and the Planets (Bushel & Peck) is a clever pop-up book that explains how a spacesuit is like a mini spaceship, that if we travelled in a normal plane to the Sun it would take about 20 years, and about seasons and satellites (you could fit 30 Earths between our planet and the Moon). Real stargazers might check out the 2024 Australasian Sky Guide (NewSouth) for where to look in the sky for planets, constellations and meteor showers. It’s Aussie-focused but times can be quickly adjusted.
The Sun and the Planets by Patricia Geis. Photo / Supplied
A few years ago, Wellington-based graphic artist Hamish Thompson published a small book that showcased the most innovative logos of New Zealand organisations from 1960-80. Now comes the next two decades of Kiwi design cleverness in More Marks of Identity, including the stylised tiki head of Expo 88, the alluring koro road of Far North District Council, done in a day, the three weather “tails” of the Met Service, and the Canterbury Clothing Company, which are three Cs but also (you may not have realised) the heads of sea birds.
More Marks of Identity: New Zealand Logos 1980 - 2000. Photo / Supplied
